Review: Dear Agony by Georgia Cates

You’ve been my shadow, following me through childhood—filling my days and nights with terror and uncertainty. You cleverly disguised yourself as some form of pain or suffering as I grew into a young woman. We were unwavering companions … until I severed our ties.

I traded homelessness on the streets of New Orleans for a luxurious bed covered by the finest linens. I traded dumpster diving for dinner in the finest restaurants. I traded myself to a stranger—Bastien Pascal.

I have a good life within my platonic and mutually beneficial companionship with Bash. He’s my friend. My mentor. My roommate. Until everything changes.

I’m not supposed to get goosebumps when his hand brushes my skin. I’m not supposed to be eager for his soothing touch following one of my nightmares. I’m not supposed to think about what might happen if I reached out to him in the darkness.

Falling in love with him? Preposterous . . . unavoidable.

Agony, why are you back with a vengeance to rob me of this life I’ve come to love so dearly?

I’m finally happy. Don’t ruin this for me.

Always yours, Rose

In this epic love story, Dear Agony forges a connection between an unlikely pair—a beautiful rose entwined in barbed wire and a shipwreck sinking into the darkest depths of the ocean. This agonizing romantic novel poses some gut-wrenching questions: What does a woman do when the man she loves is planning his own demise? And how far will she go to give him something to live for?

Dear Agony by Georgia Cates was pretty different than anything else I’ve read lately. The first thing that grabbed my attention, though, was the cover of it. I love it, it’s sweet, it’s romantic, it made me ask questions. The second thing was the blurb. That made me want to read the book.

Like I already said, Dear Agony isn’t your typical read. Yes, it has an HEA, and it’s told from an alternative first person POV. The POV in this book I think is a major key to the storyline because if you didn’t have the insight on both sides, it’d be even more frustratingly angst-ridden than it already is.

What you don’t usually read in a blurb is that one character is going to die, that they are actually planning it. You have to really ask yourself why they would and what would push them to that point.

You have two completely complex characters that are so fantastically well written with many facades, that it makes you want to dig into their story. It’s not an insta-love book also, no, the hero seeks out the heroine for a very specific reason. It is really a slow burn romance about two people, meeting, being friends first and falling in love through some very rocky emotional terrain.

I trekked the gamut of feelings with this book, from happy, shocked, angsty, biting my nails, crying, yelling at my Kindle, and that’s just to name a few of them. I loved the story of Rose and Bastian. Again, I loved the characters and I’m actually extremely glad this was a standalone, because I couldn’t have handled another book.

Five-star read and one I would happily recommend to anyone. It’s different, it’s raw at times, but it’s absolutely fantastic as well. I didn’t want to put it down.